Liquid or center-filled gum and other confectionery products are in popular demand today. Typically, these products have a solid exterior portion and a soft or liquid-type center. The outer portion can be chewing gum or bubble gum of some type, while the liquid center portion can be a flavored material typically having a syrup-like consistency.
There has been a difficulty in preparing some center-filled products, however. It has been found that certain center-fill compositions tend to leak and migrate. The center-fill compositions tend to be absorbed into the chewing gum region. This is particularly problematic in liquid-filled chewing gum compositions. The problem of migration is especially evident when certain polyols, such as sorbitol, are used in the chewing gum region. For instance, sorbitol has a high porosity, and thus, readily absorbs liquid from the center-fill composition.
There is a need for new gum compositions, and particularly hard or crunchy coated gums, which provide the desired hard shell coating layer in combination with a multi-region, such as a center-filled, gum, while resisting loss of liquidity. There is also a need for a multi-region gum, which retains its liquid region composition during manufacturing and during its shelf-life, and which can be made in a reduced piece-size without loss of the liquid-region properties.